Finds that the life and writings of Thomas Merton can be quite appealing to high school and college students because he embodies and articulates the dynamic activity of God's call in his life. Merton gives voice to students' struggles to find meaning and to their difficulties in expressing their experiences of grace in their lives. (VWC)

This manuscript explores the concept of balance for master's students enrolled in student affairs preparation programs in the Southeast and Midwest. It provides research on the ways balance is restricted for master's students who are employed in a student affairs setting while also enrolled in preparation programs, and it investigates themes which…

Parents of children in a large primary school in New South Wales were asked questions related to their attitudes towards and beliefs about composite (multigrade) classes. Parental concerns about composite classes are commonly reported as negative and this study confirmed this concern. Issues identified as causing concern for parents were a belief…

Romanticism's valuing of love and the life of the imagination, combined with its belief in human potential taken heroically to and beyond its limits, provides a way of addressing differently and fruitfully certain issues to do with pedagogy in schools, making in particular better sense of what it means to be an effective teacher and a productive…

Professionalising the early childhood workforce in terms of improving pay and conditions of work and employing male workers can be seen as independent trends: there is no necessary relationship between the two. However, when the definition of professionalism is extended to include the scope and quality of practice, the experiences and views of…

Religion, like Superhero discourse, is a contested topic of question and debate in early childhood education. This article draws on data from a small ethnographic study that took place in a long day care centre in Sydney Australia. The study examined how children negotiated their "identity work" in the context of popular culture. In this…

This article describes the results of a workshop that was held in Valencia during the annual conference of SEFI in 2004. The authors give remarks on the results supported by relevant and recent research. In the workshop, where about 35 participants were present, the following questions were discussed and answered: Which factors indicate that an…

In this article, the author discusses African American researchers' perspectives on the experiences, impact and success of Black teachers with Black students in public schools. This study builds on an earlier study that focused specifically on these researchers' insights about the impact of the "Brown versus the Topeka Board of Education" decision…

Four teacher researchers focused on the lack of students' proper social skills for this action research project report. In the classes of four teacher researchers, the students were coming to school lacking proper social skills. Because of this, teachers were spending time allocated for the curriculum, on discipline and the instruction of social…

Hispanics are one of the largest and fastest-growing minority groups in the United States. Projections indicate a need for an increase of 20% of practicing engineers by 2010. Despite the growing number of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) careers in the American economy, education statistics suggest that too few Hispanic students…

This paper outlines a primary prevention program begun in the spring of 1993 through the efforts of School Social Workers of the Albuquerque Public Schools Special Education Department, that serves at-risk Hispanic special education elementary school students and their families. It is a collaborative project that recruits Hispanic students from a…

This conference proceedings focuses on structuring classrooms to optimize learning among Alberta (Canada) gifted students. The first paper, "Optimizing Parent Potential" (Trudy A. Harrold), describes a model and a process for helping parents acquire knowledge, organize their thinking, and act from a realistic base when dealing with their gifted…

Ways to establish or improve ministries to African American families and ways to make the church a training center for outreach, prevention, enrichment, and problem solving are explored. Part 1 addresses the spiritual challenge, and points out that the pastor's family is looked on as a model family, and that pastors must learn to be better spouses…

Through a program called the Minority Male Afterschool Program (MMAP), college students at Mississippi Valley State University in Itta Bena (Mississippi) are working one-on-one with high school students. The MMAP is an enrichment program that encourages at-risk African American students aged 12 to 19 to complete high school and pursue…

This study explores the Polish experience in values education. Between the years 1944 and 1989 Polish education was often state controlled with the sole purpose of subjugating education to Marxist-Leninist ideology. Over the years the communist party's dictates varied in intensity. Despite the party's efforts to prescribe ethics, certain values…